1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a fin removing apparatus for removing the casting fin of an aluminum wheel created by casting in the process of manufacturing the aluminum wheel.
2. Related Background Art
Aluminum wheels, for which demand has recently been rapidly increasing for use with automobiles and motorcycles, are manufactured by a casting method such as gravity casting or low-pressure casting. The manufacturing process of aluminum wheels generally adopts the following steps:
casting.fwdarw.cooling.fwdarw.casting fin PA1 removal.fwdarw.ingate and dead head PA1 severing.fwdarw.lathing PA1 means for positioning the center of said aluminum wheel at a predetermined position and positioning said casting fins on a predetermined line passing through said predetermined position; PA1 styluses for moving along the profile of the tire-mounting surface of said aluminum wheel; and PA1 cutters each having a rotary shaft parallel to the center axis of said aluminum wheel and adapted to be fed to a casting fin removing position along lines passing through said predetermined position at a predetermined angle with respect to said predetermined line to thereby remove the casting fins of said aluminum wheel in accordance with said movement of said styluses.
and among these, casting fin removal and ingate and dead head severing are steps necessary for decreasing the number of lathing steps.
A longitudinal cross-sectional view of an aluminum wheel 1 with casting fins is shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings, and a transverse cross-sectional view taken along line 2--2 of FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. 2 of the accompanying drawings.
Casting fins are usually created on the flange portion 3 of a surface 2 of the aluminum wheel 1 on which a design is made, and on the tire-mounting surface 4 of the aluminum wheel. On the flange portion 3, a casting fin 3a is created over the whole circumference thereof. On the tire-mounting surface 4, casting fins 4a are created at two locations spaced apart by 180 degrees with respect to the center axis of the aluminum wheel 1 due to the relation with a metal mold.
The configurations of the tire-mounting surface 4 on which the casting fins 4a are created are multifarious because the dimensions of the aluminum wheel 1 are multifarious. Heretofore, such casting fins 4a have been manually removed by the use of a grinder or the like.
In the prior art as described above, the manual removal of the casting fins of the aluminum wheel by the use of a grinder or the like has been a major factor leading to increased costs. So, various attempts have been made to automate this work by a method using a robot or an NC apparatus, but this method has not yet been put into practical use because very much time is required for the teaching of the robot or the programming of the NC apparatus and the working time is lengthy and the apparatus becomes expensive. For this reason, there has been desired a casting fin removing apparatus of simple structure which can accommodate aluminum wheels of all configurations and dimensions.